


Blood isn't always thicker than water

by AnnaHawk



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Blood, Brother-Sister Relationships, Family Feels, Friend Reader - Freeform, Gen, Gore, Hurt Frank Castle, Hurt/Comfort, Prompt Fill, Reader is really pissed, Swearing, Trigger Warnings, Tumblr Prompt, Wasn't sure how to rate this so I just didn't, detailed description of injuries, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:15:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23613616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaHawk/pseuds/AnnaHawk
Summary: You and Frank are like brother and sister. Meaning that when he gets injured because he's acting like a self distructive idiot again and comes to your place afterwards, you give him a serious talking to. Tough luck if he doesn't like it.
Relationships: Frank Castle/Original Female Character(s), Frank Castle/Reader, Frank Castle/You
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Blood isn't always thicker than water

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this [request](https://anna-hawk.tumblr.com/post/615011071871401984/can-i-make-a-frank-request-not-for-a-romantic) I got on Tumblr.  
> I hope it came close to what you had in mind Anon! 
> 
> It was actually pretty fun to write something that doesn't involve a romantic relationship when I tend to read and write mostly mature to explicit fics. 
> 
> I have a younger sister I love to death, but she is also the only one who can drive me absolutely crazy. So I tried to use those types of feelings to write this.

“You have  _ got _ to be fucking  _ kidding  _ me, Castle” you exclaim harshly as said man half stumbles over your threshold. “What the  _ fuck _ happened this time?” you question, barely letting him fully into your house before slamming your entrance door shut after him.

Frank doesn't answer though and just limps into the direction of your bathroom, leaving a trail of blood and dirt in his wake.

“Goddammit” you swear and follow him at a quick pace.

He leaves the bathroom door open so you see him rip off his breastplate and Kevlar vest with a hard and wheezing breath when you get to his side.

“As much as I love your little impromptu visit, Frank, could please  _ answer _ me?” you demand with your arms folded under your chest as you watch him take his shirt off now. 

You grimace and groan in exasperation when you see the amount of blood on his back and what you assume must be stabbing wounds under all of it. Your experienced eye tells you that he would definitely need stitches. 

You had served with Frank, Curtis and Billy on your tour to Afghanistan. That had been just before that terrible time with Cerberus and what had followed those events. 

You hadn’t been able to stay the whole tour as you’d gotten a severe leg injury in the middle of it and had to be flown back to the US in emergency. You hadn’t lost your leg like Curtis, but you still limp a lot on bad days. 

You’d been the youngest and one of the only women in this Marine corp. But all three men had soon seen your potential and enjoyed your snarky personality. So you’d become fast friends rapidly. 

You are still very close to this day, except for Billy obviously. 

You had been at the other side of the country, still recovering from your injury as some nerves had been damaged, when the attack on Frank and his family happened. 

You'd heard from Curtis after a while when he himself found out that Frank had gone on a revenge mission on everyone who had been involved. It’s easy to say that you had felt sick, sad and beyond furious in turns when you’d found out that Billy had been involved in all of it. 

You hadn’t been able to believe it at first. You had all been so close and would never have thought that either one of you would have been capable of turning on one of the others like this. 

To this day, you still feel guilty you haven't been able to be there for Frank right after his family’s death. Just like Curtis, you would have done anything to help him. 

The void Billy left in your group had been hard to fill in. But you'd all made it through it in the end.

“Jus’ gimme your first aid kit, kid” he growls as he’s taking his combat boots and denims off. 

Ugh, you hate it when he calls you Kid.

Frank still calls you this at times. He’s the only one who does it though. As close as you are with Curtis and were with Billy, you and Frank have always been closer. You know Frank sees you like the little sister he never had and you love him like a brother as well. And like with all siblings, you want to hit him too at times. Like right now. 

Tonight the name sounds even worse to your ears than usual. More patronizing.

“And what good is that gonna do, huh?” you ask viciously as you quickly go into your bedroom to retrieve a medical box as first aid isn’t going to cut it here and hurry back to the bathroom where Frank now stands in only his boxer shorts. From what you can see, his back is the only part of him that is really bleeding a lot. You can’t actually determine how many gashes there are as the blood is running down steadily in several places all at once. “You got extensible arms to sew up your back now?” you snark acidly. 

“I can deal with that later, just-” Frank huffs angrily but you push at his shoulder to get to the sink.

“Just shut up, Frank and go sit on the stool” you switch the water on after waving your hand in the direction of the small wooden stool you keep in the bathroom and start washing your hands diligently.

“‘m fine, alright? You-” but he stops talking at the dirty look you throw him over your shoulder and goes to do as told. Although he mutters unhappily as he does so.

When you’re done with washing your hands, you grab a few clean towels and all the other supplies you would need to clean the wounds and stitch him up and then go to stand behind him.

As you go over his back with a towel and wipe away a good part of the blood with warm water and soap, Frank grunting as it probably stings like hell, you discover five stabbing wounds, one slightly deeper than the other ones and a few smaller slashes as well as some swelling and bruising over his right shoulder blade. 

“You’re a mess” you comment with a tired sigh as you grab what you need to disinfect everything before sewing him up.

“Ever the sweet talker” Frank grits out and you really want to press on one of the stabbing wounds but you refrain, taking a deep breath. 

“Shut up and stay still” you order as you've grabbed a needle and some thread and put your hands on his back gently. 

You know Frank can take a lot of pain, especially when he’s probably still full of adrenaline, but you still try to make quick and effective moves to close the gashes as fast as possible. 

Frank grunts at times, but otherwise stays silent and doesn't twitch or move at all. 

You try to stay silent as you work, but the damage to his body, like all the other times since you came back to New York, makes you so damn angry that you can’t hold it in for too long in the end.

“Jesus, just _look_ at you, Frank” you chastise furiously. "You gotta stop doing shit like this… I know your aim's impeccable so don't you  _ dare _ tell me that you actually  _ had _ to get close to any of those fuckers you fought tonight… I mean come on… I've seen the blood you've dragged in and considering your injuries, I can tell that most of it isn't even yours. So if you want to beat some assholes into a bloody pulp so badly, could you at least be careful enough and try  _ not _ to get fucking  _ stabbed _ when it's clear you could have avoided it to start with?" 

"If you gonna keep yappin' about it, just lemme finish, yeah?” Frank spits angrily “Don' need your help, alright? I-” 

“Then why come here, asshole?” you shout over him and punctuate your outburst with a stitch that might have been a bit too aggressive and which results in Frank grunting and cursing under his breath. “If you’re oh so well off on your own, why do you bother coming here every time, huh? Why don’t you go back to one of your little safe houses and deal with your shit alone like you apparently desperately want to?  _ Why fucking bother me with this _ ?” you actually scream the last part you’re that aggravated and frustrated and just so fed up. 

Good thing you’re done with the stitches because your hands are shaking from your anger and you really just want to hit something badly. But you’re not done, because you still have to bandage your work. 

Thankfully, Frank is finally silent, though he’s visibly seething in front of you, but you’re done quickly enough as you use as few movements as possible. 

“Now clean yourself up and then put your clothes in the washer like the  _ big boy _ you supposedly are” you order curtly and stomp out of your bathroom, slamming the door behind you. 

You still have some of Frank’s clothes in your room from his last stint, so you grab them before returning to the bathroom, where Frank is now standing before the running shower and throw them into his face wordlessly, slamming the door again for good measure and not bothering to see if he caught them. 

You return to your living room and grab your phone, making the rash decision to call Curtis and tell him what happened. Again. You really need to get it all off your chest before you really break something. 

Curtis sighs long and exasperated. He silently listens to you ramble away angrily but cuts you off at some point with an “I’ll be there in ten” and hangs up on you. 

You gape at your phone like a moron, offended for a second that he did it, but then sigh faintly because you’re actually relieved he’s coming. At least you won't be alone with Frank and be tempted to kick his stupid ass.

Frank joins you in the living room, dressed in the clean clothes and looking way better than earlier, just when your doorbell goes off. 

His head snaps wearily into the direction of your entrance hall and you roll your eyes at him as you make your way over to it.

“Hey, Hon’” Curtis greets you with his big smile the moment you open the door and leans in for a one armed hug you return fervently while he holds a bag in his other hand. 

“You called Curt?” Frank’s voice is low and resentful in disbelief from where he’s standing between entrance hall and living room.

“Good to see you too, buddy” Curtis deadpans when he walks in and you close the door for him. 

Frank huffs and returns into the other room.

You and Curtis exchange tired glances and follow him.

“Seriously, girl, you jus’ had to make a big thin’ out of it again, huh?” Frank rounds on you with a pissed off glare.

“Fuck you, Frank. Consider yourself lucky I didn't call Karen too” you hiss as the anger that had slowly ebbed when you'd found out that Curtis is coming, fires up again.

You had met Karen after one of Frank’s other numerous stunts. Bonding with her over Frank’s lack of self preservation and her ‘I don’t take shit from anyone’ attitude. You had been so glad to find another woman that cares as much about him as you. As much as you love those men, having another woman in your tight group, made you feel way better. Talking to her about everything in your life, knowing that she would just _get_ you, means everything to you. 

As expected, Frank stops. At least this shows you that he isn’t really as unaffected by your words as he would like you to believe. Because he knows that of the three of you, Karen is the one who has the disappointed look down pat and Frank would feel way more guilty than he already ought to. 

You don’t tell him you’re still going to call her in the morning though.

As you watch each other silently, you with your eyebrows raised in challenge, waiting to see if he’s got anything else to add for himself, Curtis steps between the two of you with his bag held up in front of him. 

“I brought some take out” he annonces, giving you both pointed hopeful looks.

You and Frank stare at each other for another few seconds, before he finally looks away with a loud huff and walks into your kitchen, letting you face Curtis instead.

“What did you get?” you wonder curiously and walk up to him. 

It’s already late and you'd eaten a light dinner way earlier, so you could definitely eat something. At least it might take your mind off of things.

Well, no such luck though. The three of you sit around your kitchen table, Thai food containers littering the surface and eat in strained silence. 

Poor Curtis tries but fails to get the conversation up a few times, but you're too pissed at Frank's general behaviour and Frank just sulks. You keep shooting each other dirty glances over the table while you chew away at your dishes. 

The food is pretty good but you barely register what you’re eating anyway. 

“I’ll do the dishes” you tell them in a flat voice when everyone is done and you grab the plates and everything from the table to bring them to the sink and add them to those you haven’t done earlier.

“Want some help?” Curtis asks from behind you but you just shake your head without turning around and point your thumb into the direction of the living room.

“Just chill out while I do this” you suggest and you hear an affirmative grunt from him and then two pair of feet shuffle out of the kitchen.

You soon hear the TV being switched on and both men channel surfing to find something interesting to watch. They're talking to each other too but you can’t hear the actual words, so you go back to your sink once more and turn on the tab. 

You opted to do the dishes to get some time for yourself, calm your mind and lessen the desire to hit Frank with your fists or something heavy even. The repetitive movements manage to sooth you after a while and you only pick up a few noises from the other room but enough that you understand that the guys are watching some kind of Wrestling show. More fighting. Great…

You’re on your last two dishes, when you feel someone sidle up behind you. 

At first you think it’s Curtis but then a pair of strong arms wrap you in a tight hug and you realize it’s Frank.

"'m sorry" he rumbles softly against your hair. 

You sag against him and turn around, hands still wet, to hug him back just as fiercely. 

You might push against one of the fresh wounds on purpose and make him grunt in pain. But he wheezes out a small laugh anyway.

"Okay, I deserved that" he gasps and kisses your hair affectionately.

"Damn right, you do" you mumble against his shoulder.

You’re both quiet for a long minute, just holding each other.

"Y’know I'm aware I wouldn' be ‘round no more if it wasn' for the three of you, right?"

"Funny way of showing it, jerk" you grouse but it’s more half hearted now that Frank has admitted to his wrongs.

"I know" 

"Next time, bring some coffee at least, man" Curtis chastises jokingly from where he now stands behind Frank. But as you move your head away from Frank, you see Curtis has one of his broad hands on his friend's uninjured shoulder, squeezing it gently. 

You put yours over it, squeezing tightly and smile at your two best friends. Even if one of them is a big idiot at times.

They say blood is thicker than water but you wouldn't trade them for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are as usual always welcome <3
> 
> Come find me on [Tumblr](https://anna-hawk.tumblr.com/)


End file.
